The human body is an incredible, curious and disgusting thing. At any time, millions of tiny life forms cross your body – inside and out. And now researchers say they have discovered a whole new life class in the human body, the digestive system, to be exact. These new life forms are called obelisks, and researchers say they first thought they could be viruses.
However, after having studied them a little more in depth, researchers think that even if they seem similar to viruses in some respects, they have no detectable sequences or even structural similarities with other known organic agents that we met. So if they are viruses, they are something completely new.
However, the chances of this new class of life within the human body being a VIThe RUs are thin, especially since researchers say they have so far identified at least 30,000 different obelisks. In addition, they appeared in around 10% of the human microbiomas that the team examined while working on a pre -printed document. According to the researchers, this supports the idea that obelisks could include settlers from these different microbiomas.
Exactly where these obelisks come from, however, is not yet very clear. Researchers still do not know exactly what could play “host” to these different pieces of genetic equipment. However, they all seem to include codes for a new protein class that researchers began to call the obinies.
The instructions to build these proteins seem to take at least half of the genetic material found in this new life class. In addition, researchers say that the ability to code for proteins makes obelisks very different from other known RNA loops, such as viroids.
However, they also do not seem to have genetic makeup to create the protein shells for which RNA viruses are known – including COVID -19 – which allows viruses to live when they are outside their cells. The researchers’ document is available on the preparation server biorxivAnd a more in -depth examination by peers is necessary to determine the real value of these results.
